Lesson Plans for English Language Learners Essay

Introduction

Language plays an important role in the development of an individual. Language is not merely for communication but also an essential means to convey and understand any information. Speaking, reading, listening and writing are well associated with each other in any language. There are some basic principles that has to be followed to understand a language well. Learning the tempo and structure of a language in early childhood will help the child in mastering the various aspects of the language, that may even put a strong base in future development of the child.

Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is to help English learners to hear, recognize and understand sounds of English and extract the meaning of it.

• Lesson plan Title – Teaching phenomic segmentation
• Aim – Learning to count the sounds in a word

Activities:

1. Rubber band stretch: The teacher models with a large rubber band how to stretch out a word as the word is said for example the word man as man. Teacher then models with the stretched out band how to bring rubber band back to original length and say the word fast as /man/.The children will pretend to stretch rubber bands as they say the sounds in different words.
2. Strechy names: Children and teacher clap and say a verse for each child in class. Then as they together say a name slowly the palms will be stretch far apart as the word is stretched and then clap once quickly as the name is said fast
3. Sound boxes:The teacher can show students how to make sound boxes on their papers or lap boards and then learn to say a word stretching it out and then slide a marker into each box as they hear each sound
4. A song to teach phonemic segmentation: The teacher should ask the students to listen to the words she says and ask the students to tell her all the sounds that they heard. This can be done individually for each student.” (Teaching phonemic segmentation, n.d, para.1).

The Phonics Play

Phonics is related to a method of teaching English learners the way to read and write English. Phonics describes how to link spoken English sounds with letters or even group of letters. It brings a relation between a letter and its sound. “Lesson plan title- The reading of /o/ in words, sentences, a paragraph and story Aim-To help children to decode words containing the letter “o” when it is followed by consonant and silent.

Activity:

1. Given a list of words containing vowel sounds and four set of phonograms depicting the /0/, the pupil will auditorily, discriminate /o/ in the initial and medial positions of the paired words by saying a key word and telling whether the beginning and medial sounds in the words sound the same or different for four out of four sets.
2. Four sets of phonograms will be given depicting the /o/ ,the visual discrimination of children will be employed to the letters o consonant e pattern in the lists of words by underlining the letters which are same in all the words.
3. The children will use tactile and kinesthetic senses to discriminate the letters in the o consonant e pattern by tracing and copying the phonogram correctly in four words from a given set of words.
4. The children will be given three sentences to read and they will have to select word with o consonant e pattern by correctly underlining.
5. Paragraphs will be provided to children who, has o consonant e pattern words, the children will have to recognize and understand those words by reading the words in the paragraph aloud.
6. The children will be given set of phonograms and a different initial consonant for each word, the children will orally blend the words by substituting the first letter for four out of four sets using a different phonogram for each test.
7. Given a story containing words having the o consonant e pattern the children will make out those words by reading those words in section of the story aloud.” (Licata, n.d., para.1).

Understanding the level of Literature analysis

The student should be able to understand every character in a story especially the main character and how is connected to the other characters in the story. Understanding the different characters reveal the degree to which the student has understood the story. The class was given a simple short story to read through. Writing paper and pencil were also provided.

• Lesson plan Title – Inferring Character Traits
• Aim – The students will be able to understand character traits and the relationship between characters and at the same time changes in traits and relationship as the story progresses
• Activities – This can be performed as a whole group, small group or as individuals depending on the ability of the class

The following questions can be given to assess the literature analysis:

1. Who is the main Character?
2. Describe the traits of the character?
3. Name the other important characters in the story?
4. How does the main character feel about the other important characters?
5. How does each other character feel about the main character?
6. Did the main character’s traits changed as the story proceeded if so how did it affect the other important characters?

After the above work is done each student or group should be asked to share his opinion about the main character to his classmates.” (Calder, n.d.).

Reflection of implementation

The lesson plan literature analysis was implemented to know the level of understanding of the students. All students were asked to individually write down the answers and share their experience. Every student was successful in stating the main character of the story but the traits of the character were not well explained by most of the children. Some of the children restricted the traits to physical appearance. The question anyway helped out to assess that they were able to understand who the central character of the story was. There were varied answers to the question which asked about the other important characters in the story. Understanding the other important characters in the story is necessary as those characters will have an important contribution to the proceeding of the story. Only some of the students were able to pen down what the main character felt about the other characters they have cited as important. The questions four and five were answered more or less the same manner by many of the students and the extent of understanding of the story seem to be poor when correlated with the answers. The two questions can assess that the children were not able to understand the progress of the story and the relation the central character had with the other characters in the story. The problem may lie within poor comprehension of the English language as the children were speaking English only from the last one year. The last question was used to analyze whether the children observed any change of the character’s trait as the story proceeded and most of them seemed to be confused about the question as most of the answers were not specific to the question. Most of the children mostly shared to the classmates a general opinion of what they felt about the central character and this brings in light that a proper understanding of the central character was lacking. Some more questions can also be added to this lesson plan which will ask to summarize the story with respect to the central character. Asking the children to write a brief outline of the story will help to estimate the level of understanding of the story as a whole by the student.

Conclusion

All institutions should take into consideration the need to teach the basic standards of the English language to children. If only the children have a strong base in the language then they can grow upon that to further gain knowledge in regard to that language. Lesson plans should be made in such a manner that the teacher will be able to assess the level understanding of each student and it should also allow the student to participate both physically and mentally in the class environment.

References

Calder, D. (n.d.). Inferring character traits. CEClang.39. 2010. Web.

Licata, A. T. (n.d.). A model lesson plan for teaching phonics. Technology. 2010. Web.

Teaching phonemic segmentation. (n.d.). Los Angels Country office of Education. 2010. Web.